The influence of place can be seen in poems such as “To the Mississippi.” Percy’s first volume of poetry, Sappho in Levkas and Other Poems (1915), invokes many themes of classical literature and romantic poetry. Percy composed poetry that was largely ignored in Greenville but won the attention and praise of the Fugitives at Vanderbilt. He then received a law degree from Harvard University in 1908 and returned to Greenville to practice law.
After graduating from Sewanee in 1904, Percy spent a year traveling Europe and Egypt. During his time in college, Percy’s ten-year-old brother, LeRoy, was accidentally killed by a rifle, which may have led to Percy’s disaffection with the Catholic Church. Percy attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, following a path trod by three generations of earlier Percys. His parents withdrew him from the convent when he decided he wanted to be a priest, and he finished his early education with a personal tutor. During his early education at the Sisters of Mary Convent, Percy accepted Catholicism. The weight of family tradition pressed on Percy, who was marked as different from an early age. Percy never felt close to his mother, Camille, and found maternal affection from his young nurse, Nain. Will Percy perceived himself as distanced from and overshadowed by his father, LeRoy, a powerful planter, lawyer, and US senator. William Alexander Percy was born on in Greenville, Mississippi, and was named after his grandfather, a planter and lawyer who served as a colonel during the Civil War, earning the nickname the Gray Eagle of the Valley.
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